Mississippi mission, first work day

New Evening Star Baptist Church, Gulfport, Mississippi. The church is located a few miles north of the beach, so it was not blown down, but winds damaged the roof, rains came through the ceiling and destroyed much of the interior. The roof has been fixed, the ceiling and walls replaced, but our team is here to finish the wall plastering and caulking around windows, etc. and then paint.

The neighborhood near the church.

Stephen Howell and Milton Morgan look over the New Evening Star sanctuary as two of the members are putting on primer.

We finished a coat of paint in the middle afternoon, so we spent the late afternoon visiting the worst areas of hurricane damage. This homeowner in Gulfport has a sense of humor.

All that is left of this formerly beautiful home in Long Beach, Mississippi, is this chair.

First Baptist Church, Gulfport, Mississippi. This church faces the Gulf of Mexico. You can see straight through the inside to the buildings on the other side, so much of it was blown away. The congregation plans to sell this property and relocate further inland.

Some of the work crew poses for a picture with Rev. Charles Harris, the pastor (seated).
Today we spent the morning sanding the walls, caulking, fixing woodwork around windows and doors, and some trim painting. Dwayne Ladner, FBC Rincon member who is from this area of Mississippi, came by and brought us sub sandwiches for lunch (thanks, Dwayne!) He is down here working this week at his office on the coast.
This afternoon we put on a coast of paint. Tomorrow we plan to put on a second coat of paint, and tomorrow night we will worship with the congregation.
It's already looking good. One man came in and said, "I'm 61 years old, and I've gone to this church all of my life, and this is the best it has ever looked!" He said it was built by the people, and didn't have many straight edges when it was originally done, so this renovated building is going to be much nicer than they have ever had before.

Mission trip to Mississippi

Our group of 8 volunteers safely travelled to Gulfport, Mississippi on Mon., Feb. 27. The following people are with me: T. R. Long, Lester Gaborik, Ron Coats, Beth Pye, Sherri Baeten, Milton Morgan and Stephen Howell. Dwayne Ladner is already here and will meet us tomorrow. We came to help New Evening Star Baptist Church in Gulfport as they finish repairing their sanctuary after it was gutted by rains in Hurricane Katrina. The church is located in the north part of Gulfport, several miles from the beach, but it still was flooded by the rains, and we noticed many, many homes in the neighborhood with tarps still on their roofs and debris piled out by the streets in front of homes. It is a very economically-depressed neighborhood. Highway 49 in Gulfport is a bustling business area, with modern chain stores like Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, etc., but when we turned off Highway 49 into the neighborhood near the church, it was startling, like we had entered a different world. The church members met us when we arrived, and fed us a delicious home-cooked meal of chicken, catfish, beans, sweet potatoes, cornbread, peach cobbler, etc. . A lot of the members were there working on the building. It is a small church building, but they have done a nice job trying to restore it. I will try to post pictures tomorrow.
Their insurance paid to have a contractor put up the sheetrock already, and our job is to paint it. However, when we arrived, they told us that the person who did their sheetrock did a poor job. T. R. Long observed it and agreed that the sheetrock needed touching up before we paint. So he and I made a trip to Lowe's and bought supplies and tomorrow we will be sanding sheetrock and caulking, etc. to fix the poor work that was done earlier. Then we should begin putting on primer and the first coat.
I'm staying at the home of Rev. Charles Harrison, the pastor, who is an old friend of mine whom I've known for 10 years.
More updates tomorrow, perhaps with pictures.

Alabama on brink of Civil War

"Al-Jazeera has learned that Alabama has reached the brink of Civil War late this week, after terrorists attacked 10 holy shrines called 'churches,' belonging to a majority Christian sect in Alabama known as Baptists, believed to be at odds with the minority sect called Methodists.
Although it is not known if Methodists are responsible for the attacks, the fact that the terrorist firebombers skipped over Methodist churches has caused enraged Baptists to roam through the rural landscape with pick-up trucks and shotguns, shooting Methodists indiscriminately. Methodists have returned fire at any cars with bumper stickers that say, 'Follow Me to Sunday School.' Passions were further enraged when a Birmingham newspaper printed political cartoons of 'Bubba the Baptist' holding a shotgun and a Bible. Furious Sunday School classes have marched on the state capital in Montgomery, shouting "Death to the Methodists!" Alabama's governor has called for Baptist and Methodist clerics to call on their parishioners to cease fire, before Birmingham becomes 'Burning Ham.'"
The fact that the above story is instantly recognizable as ludicrous fiction should help us identify the true religion of peace.

When my cell phone went off during my sermon

Recently my own cell phone went off while I was preaching!
I have occasionally reminded other people to turn off their cell phones during church. We have run an announcement before worship on Power Point that says, "If you do not want your cell phone baptized, please turn it off before the service begins." Not long ago, I was giving the invitation at the end of the service, when a cell phone rang. I asked the congregation, "Are we as quick to respond to God as we are to a cell phone?"
But this particular Sunday evening, it was my own cell phone that went off! Normally, before the service begins, I take my cell phone off my belt, turn it off, and give it to my wife to put it in her purse. But for some reason, I forgot to do that. Thankfully, my phone is always set to virbrate, so it never rings. But in the middle of my sermon, I suddenly felt my left hip vibrate. I could hear the gentle "bzzz" sound. I tried to ignore it, but the "bzzz" continued. I often make a habit of walking among the congregation as I preach, and at that moment I was standing near the front pew, just inches away from some of the people, and I was sure they heard the "bzzz" too.
What should I do? I could continue to ignore it, but it was distracting me so much that I couldn't concentrate on my sermon. So I stopped preaching, reached down, slipped the phone off my belt, and threw the phone down on the front pew, while saying, "My cell phone is going off." After a few chuckles from the congregation, I went on and finished my sermon.
After the service, several people said, "We would never have known your cell phone was going off if you hadn't said anything." True. They didn't know, but I knew, and I couldn't think straight until I got rid of it.
What do you do when you get a sudden call during worship? Acts 2:38-39 says that the promise of forgiveness of sins is available "for all whom the Lord our God will call." So if the call is from God, you'd better answer it. But if it's a distraction from the devil, you'd better get rid of it. Wisdom is in recognizing whose ring tone you are receiving-- or who is shaking your hip.

Controversy over End of the Spear

A controversy has arisen over the movie, End of the Spear, which is the story of the five missionaries speared to death by native tribesmen in Ecuador in 1956, and how the missionaries' families later went to live with the same tribe and shared the gospel with them.
Chad Allen, who plays one of the missionaries, is a homosexual. Some Christians have protested the movie because of this.
There is an excellent interview with the writer, Steve Saint, and movie producer, Mart Green, that gives their answers, which may surprise you. Basically, they did not know that Chad was gay when he was offered the role, and after they found out they decided to keep him not only to honor their contract but also to reach out to him in the same loving way that the five missionaries reached out to the tribesmen who killed them.
I must also confess that their reasons for their decision to keep him on board made sense to me. After all, isn't this a story about people who unconditionally loved sinful men and showed them a better way through Christ? And isn't that what the Steve Saint and Mart Green were trying to do by loving Chad Allen, despite his homosexuality?
I encourage you to read the interview before jumping to conclusions about this one. You may not agree with them, but I think you will respect their integrity and passion for sharing Christ in a loving manner.
By the way, I am currently reading Steve Saint's book, End of the Spear, upon which the movie is based. If you enjoyed the movie, read the book, and you will learn a lot more about the background of what happened and more about the Waodoni people and how they are living today.

News more important than Cheney's accidental shooting

I guess it is an important story, at least for one or two days, that Vice President Cheney accidentally shot and injured his friend in a hunting accident. I certainly hope the man has a full recovery. Cheney blew it by not telling what happened immediately. But with the feeding frenzy going on in the media, you would think Cheney had murdered his mother.
I've been thinking, there are a lot of things more important than the Cheney story. I can even think of local things more important than Cheney's accidental shooting, such as:

• praying for a 10th grade student named Whitney M. who attends our church who was accidentally hit by a pick-up truck while crossing the road on Monday. She suffered serious injuries, but is slowly getting better at a local hospital.
• praying for the daughter of the pastor at Rincon United Methodist Church; she is going to Kenya to work for the Peace Corps in AIDS education
• shoot, for that matter, the fact that Rincon is getting new traffic lights at McCall Rd. and Towne Park Drive is more important to me than Cheney's hunting accident!

Any comments? What news items would you list that are more important than Cheney's hunting accident?

More evidence in church fires

A 10th Baptist church was burned in Alabama on Saturday, the Beaverton Freewill Baptist Church in Lamar County in northwest Alabama near the Mississippi line, and new evidence is coming out.
Investigators are looking for at least two white men in their 20s or 30s, possibly driving a dark SUV. There is no racial motive, as five of the congregations were white, and five were black. They believe the men may have been temporarily trapped in one of the fires, and may be injured. Authorities are asking the arsonists to contact them.
The crimes appear to be directly targeting Baptist churches. In several cases, the arsonists have passed up more accessible Methodist churches and churches of other denominations. In each case, they appear to have kicked in the door, walked to the pulpit and communion area, and set the fire in that part of the church.
Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch has been to the affected churches, to "hug on necks" and also to offer financial assistance to all of the churches affected. Four of the burned churches are Southern Baptist, five are affiliated with African-American Baptist denominations, and one is Freewill Baptist.
According to the Alabama Baptist, a sign outside Dancy First Baptist, one of the first churches to be burned, says, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Judge denies atheist's claim against Jesus' existence

A judge in Italy rejected a suit brought forward by an atheist who had accused a Catholic priest of deceiving the public by saying that Jesus Christ existed. Judge Gaetano Mautone, who issued the ruling in Viterbo, also said in his decision that the plaintiff, 72-year-old Luigi Cascioli, should be investigated for possible slander. Cascioli had claimed that by teaching about Jesus’ existence, the Rev. Fr. Enrico Righi, 76, had violated Roman laws prohibiting “abuse of popular belief” and “impersonation.” Since his case has been denied in Italy, Cascioli says he plans to take his claim to the European Court of Human Rights.
Actually, there are very, very few reputable historians who deny the existence of Jesus Christ as an historical person. Even most scholarly atheists admit that He existed. In addition to the New Testament, there are possible references to Him in the writings of Jewish historian Josephus, the Jewish Talmud, and the Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius. Some have argued that these references were not original to these historians, and were added later. That claim is debatable. But for most historians, the gospels themselves and the sudden development of a rapidly-growing Christian faith in the first century is evidence enough that there actually was an historical person named Jesus. The archaeological evidence for the existence of people, places and events mentioned in the gospels and manuscript evidence of the gospels is overwhelming.
Of course, this is an extremely important question, because if Jesus did exist, then He was either Lord as the gospels indicate He is, or he was a religious nutcase and liar, or else the gospels lied about Him. If one investigates the evidence for the reliability of the gospels, then one has to return to the question of whether Jesus was Lord or a liar. One cannot believe the gospels are reliable and believe that Jesus was "just a good man," because He claimed to be God (John 5:18; 14:6; 20:27-29).
So who is Jesus to you? Your eternal life depends upon your answer.

Ala. Gov thinks church fires linked

Alabama Governor Bob Riley says he thinks all nine fires of Baptist churches in his state in the past week are linked. Investigators are on the lookout for a dark SUV seen by some witnesses, although other types of vehicles have been spotted in the areas of the fires. Rather than a conspiracy against religion or Baptists in particular, they are guessing the perpetrators are thrill seekers.

Valentine's Day in the Preacher's House

I always thought that I was romantic. My wife says I am. I even got the nickname "Romeo" from a church member.
But having two attractive young daughters has taught me that I have a lot to learn about romance. According to them, there are three different levels in a boy-girl relationship:
1. "Talking." If you're "talking," it means you're interested in each other, but you're not committed to being boyfriend and girlfriend. You're free to talk to others. A lot of this "talking" is actually "typing," because they often do it with instant messaging on the computer.
2. "Going out." This means a commitment to being boyfriend and girlfriend. My generation called this "going steady," but today's teens call it "going out." The only problem is, if they don't have a driver's license, they aren't really going anywhere. Personally, I think they should call this "talking a lot more," or "typing a lot more," because that's what they're really doing.
3. "Dating." This is for older youth who have driver's licenses. If you're older, you can go straight from "talking" to "dating." Also, to further complicate things, you can be "dating" but not yet committed to "going out." So in this scenario, you actually ARE going out, yet you are not officially "going out."
To my daughter's list of three levels, I would add a fourth level. If God leads you to Mr. Right, then at the proper time, you should move to a fourth level in a relationship:
4. "Married." This is what happens when you decide to go out permanently. My oldest daughter advances to this level this coming June. Other Dads are giving me advice on preparing for the wedding, like "just pay for it and keep your mouth shut."
I'm reminded of a conversation I once overheard in a flower shop just before Valentine's Day. Some young men were in the shop, talking about their constantly changing girlfriends. An older man spoke up and said, "What you guys need to do is stop buying at the news stand and get a subscription." I looked at him and smiled. I knew what he meant, because I've had a subscription for 25 years.
The Bible says, "Rejoice in the wife of your youth" (Proverbs 5:18) and "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord" (Proverbs 18:22). That's why I'm happy for my oldest daughter. And I pray that after they are married, they don't forget to keep dating, and going out, and talking. I know that if they do, their subscription will never run out.

Dad, don't send your kids to Hell

NOTE: Since I moved my blog from MSN to Blogspot, I have archived here some of the most popular posts from the old MSN site. Below is a post from June 17, 2005:


Dad, don't send your kids to Hell
A new study published in Switzerland indicates that fathers have far more influence on the spiritual habits of their children than mothers.
They found that when Mom goes to church regularly and Dad never goes, just 2 percent of their children become regular attenders.
However, when Dad goes to church regularly and Mom never goes, 44 percent of the kids end up as regular church attenders! That means that Dad has 22 times more influence over the spiritual habits of his kids than Mom does!
No wonder Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers...bring up your children in the training and instruction of the Lord." Dad, don't buy that old line that religion is for women, or that your wife has enough religion for the both of you. It's YOUR job to be the spiritual leader in your home. If YOU don't take them to church yourself, you may as well tell them to "go to Hell," because that's basically where you're sending them.

Jesus is in New York City

NOTE: Since I moved my blog from MSN to Blogspot, I have archived here some popular posts from the old MSN site. Here is a post from July 10, 2005:


Jesus is in New York City
Tonight as we gathered for group devotional before going to our rooms, I asked the group, "Now that you have been in New York City for 24 hours, what struck you most? What really caught your attention?" Immediately, Rob P. said, "Jesus is in New York City. When I visited here before, I wasn't sure if God was here. But after today, I know that He is." Everybody agreed, not only because we found many people who were friendly and glad to give us directions, but because today we visited two very different, but very ALIVE and growing churches.
This morning we went to The Journey, a church that meets in the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center, a theater withint sight of the Empire State Building. They had a big crowd, awesome contemporary music, and a pastor who preached a simple, clear message about the gospel and challenged people to do missions locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, like Acts 1:8 says. They do all kinds of missions in all of those areas. The Journey has three services, and probably had 500 people in the service we attended. God is blessing, as just last week 9 people accepted Christ at their church. The Journey is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, and is only a three-year-old church. They use a lot of video clips in their services, and a great deal of humor. But they were dead serious when it came to sharing the gospel.
We then left and rode the subway (carefully keeping our travel groups togethr; I was much better today) to the World Trade Center site. My sister Nancy met went to church with us at The Journey and escorted us around Manhattan. We saw St. Paul's church nearby, where there are memorial displays from September 11 of pictures of people who died, and banners from people. We saw people signing a banner to the victims of the London bombings.
After lunch downtown, we rode the subway to Brooklyn, and worshiped at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. It was packed with over 4,000 people for the afternoon service. They have three services every day. The people dressed more formally at this church, and the majority were African-American, although there was a large minority of whites and also a fair number of Latino and Asian people. The service lasted 2 and a half hours, and was highly intense with emotion. But instead of contemporary music, they sang gospel songs, many that we already knew, and sang with all their hearts, clapping in a loud rhythm as they sang. The Brooklyn Tabernacle choir sang with such conviction and power that at times I was moved to tears, at other times my heart was raised in praise, and at times I was nearly knocked down by the power of the choir. Pastor Jim Cymbala preached a great sermon on facts to keep in mind about the Second Coming, and gave an invitation, and a large number of people came forward to receive Christ.
On the subway ride back to the Hostel, a woman from Philadelphia asked me about our "Paint the Town" nametags, and I was able to tell her that we were painting the schools to share the hope of Christ in the city.
No wonder the scripture I shared today in our devotional was Acts 18:9-10: "Don't be afraid, but keep on speaking and don't be silent. For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city." That is our prayer for the city as we begin to paint Middle School 207 in Western Bronx tomorrow.

Million Dollar Death

NOTE: Since I moved my blog from MSN to Blogspot, I have archived here some popular posts from the old MSN blog. Here is a post from August 2, 2005:

I just rented the movie, Million Dollar Baby, from Clean Films, which edits out all profanity, graphic violence and nudity. What Clean Films cannot edit, however, is the pro-death message of this film. It is about a female boxer whose injury causes her to be permanently paralyzed, living on a ventilator. She has no relationship with her family, and her trainer (played by Clint Eastwood, who also directed the film) is the only person who really cares for her. The injured boxer is like a daughter to him, especially since his own daughter rejects him and returns all of his letters. When she asks her trainer to take her off the ventilator, he says he cannot do it, so she bites her tongue and tries to bleed to death until the nurses bandage her tongue. Finally, the trainer goes into the rehab center while the nurses are away, takes her off the ventilator, injects her with a syringe, and takes her life. Then he leaves, never to be heard from again, with the strong implication that he took his own life, as well.
What Clint Eastwood is promoting in this film is against the law in all 50 states. Even in Oregon, which has a physician assisted suicide law, a man would be arrested for murder who did such a thing. Yet the audience is supposed to believe that it was merciful and good, since the boxer's life was no longer worth living. Who says that a life is only worth living if a person can be athletic? This is an insult to wheelchair-bound people, paralytics, the blind and Deaf and all other people with physical and mental handicaps. Let's not forget that Beethoven wrote the 9th Symphony while Deaf, and many other handicapped people have full and meaningful lives, despite their handicaps. Scripture teaches us that human life is created by God, in the image of God. As Job said when he refused to commit suicide, "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away..." (Job 2:21, HCSB). Nobody else has the right to take away life. Nobody.

Are Christians dangerous?

NOTE: Since I moved my blog from MSN to Blogspot, I have archived here some of the popular posts on my old MSN blog. Here is a post from October 23, 2005:


Are Christians dangerous?
In my Sunday sermon today, I dealt with four popular ideas of our politically correct culture that are in direct conflict with biblically correct Christianity. They are:
1) There is no absolute truth.
2) Therefore, all religions have the truth.
3) It is narrow-minded to claim there is only one way to God.
4) All religious fanatics are dangerous.
In today's blog, I want to deal briefly with the fourth idea above, and in future blogs share thoughts about the others.
The fourth idea is that all people who believe they have the one way to God are religious fanatics, and such people are dangerous, and may do something violent like fly planes into buildings or another holocaust. While it is true some religious fanatics are dangerous, the fact is that a Bible-believing Christian who claims Christ is the only way to God, is not dangerous at all. For one thing, if he believes the Bible, he believes in loving one another, loving his enemies, living at peace with others and all the other things the Bible teaches about how to treat people. What's more, if you check real-life experience, you find millions of conservative, evangelical Christians are peaceful, law-abiding citizens who are helping others, not hurting them. Peter Perl of the Washington Post discovered this in a recent trip that he made, rooming with an evangelical Christian. He was amazed to find that this conservative Christian was not the violent, Bible-thumping person he expected.
Gilbert K. Chesterton in his classic book, Heretics, made an important point about this. He said that the real danger is not the committed believer, but the person who has no convictions about what he believes at all. Such a person will find that when an idea does hit him, "it will fly to his head like wine to the head of a teetotaller." In other words, because he has not decided what he believes, he leaves himself open to being overwhelmed by some false belief teaching and going wild with it.
So the most dangerous person is not a committed person of faith, but a person with no faith at all!

Canceling church on Christmas Day?

NOTE: Since I moved my blog from MSN to Blogspot, I archived below some popular blogs from the old MSN site. Here is a blog from December 6, 2005, the blog which drew the most comments that year:

This year, Christmas Day is on a Sunday. According to the World Magazine Blog, some mega-churches have decided to only have a Christmas Eve service and no services on Christmas Day, because it is a "family time." A hot debate on this subject followed the World Mag blog post-- they had about 95 comments when I looked at it this evening.
Most people said that their own churches were having services on Christmas Day, although most were only having morning services. But the comments strongly disagreed about the correct course of action. A majority seemed to feel that it was wrong to cancel services on the Lord's Day, but some argued that worship is worship, on any day.
First Baptist Church of Rincon will be having a Christmas Eve service and we will have one morning service on Christmas Day, but no Sunday School. I will be on vacation in Mississippi, but I plan to attend church on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day with my parents. We will have family time, worshiping together.
I feel that it would be hypocritical for us Christians to be so passionate about the retail stores not banning Christmas, and then turn around and ban the Lord's Day ourselves by preferring family time over worship time on the day set aside to remember Christ's birth.
A columnist for Baptist Press agreed with me in his column recently. Do you suppose he's reading "Brother Bob's Blog?" :)
Anybody have an opinion about this one?

UPDATE: I was so proud of our church here in Georgia. Even though I was away attending my parent's church while on vacation, our church was packed for services on Christmas Day, and we had a lot of visitors. I wonder if some visitors were from churches that closed their doors that day?

C.S. Lewis on Evolution: "wishful thinking"

NOTE: Since I moved my blog from MSN to Blogspot, I decided to archive below some popular blogs from the old MSN site. Below is an entry from January 7:

I'm reading A Year with C.S. Lewis as my daily devotional. I loved the entry for January 6, taken from Mere Christianity, which I will quote in part:
"One reason why many people find Creative Evolution so attractive is that it gives one much of the emotional comfort of believing in God and none of the less pleasant consequences...[this Life-Force of Evolution] with no morals and no mind, will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children. The Life-Force is a sort of tame God. You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you. All the thrills of religion and none of the cost. Is the Life-Force the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen?"

Darwinist withdraws offer

NOTE: Since I moved my blog from MSN to Blogspot, I moved some popular blogs from my old site to this one. Here is a blog from February 2, 2006:

If you've been reading my blog, you know that on January 16 a proponent of Darwinism named Ray Wood issued a public challenge to adherents of Intelligent Design (ID) in a letter to the editor to the Savannah Morning News, a challenge I accepted in the a letter published in the same paper on January 28. He offered five hours of public school biology class for the teaching of ID, in return for his instruction of five Sunday School classes in Darwin's theory. I told him to give me a call and we'd see what we could work out, if he really had authority to offer a public school for an open debate.

Now that my acceptance letter has been published, he has withdrawn his offer! Below is the email I received from Mr. Wood yesterday. It is reproduced below, except that in the text of the letter I have provided links to some of the organizations and events that he names, so you can check them out:

Dear Brother Bob
Thank you for responding to my Letter to the Editor in the Savannah Morning News. Your mention of possibly bringing in an ID scientist caused me to spend two full days searching on Google about ID and Creation Science.
In the course of my research, I came across The Discovery Institute. Their political emphasis is on "Teach the Controversy" in order to persuade people that there really are two sides to the issue.
There aren't. My offer to initiate a local debate was actually playing into the hands of the antievolution crowd. Thus I must withdraw my offer.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Center for Science Education both denounce ID and Creation science as religion masquerading as pseudoscience. This was also the view of the Judge in the infamous Dover, PA. School Board.attempt to offer Intelligent Design as a rational alternative to Evolution, despite lengthy testimony from leading advocates of Intelligent Design.
I am a Unitarian , an engineer (Georgia Tech 1954) and a retired IBM executive. My father was a Lutheran minister..As Americans, we need to put the emphasis on issues that unite us rather than divide us. But in thanking God for our religious freedom, we must also respect scientific freedom.
Best wishes to you and your congregation.
RAY WOOD


So there you have it! Mr. Wood has withdrawn his offer.
He says that Darwinism is real science and ID is not, so he won't debate. But if Darwinism has scientific evidence to back it up, and ID doesn't, then couldn't he show that in a debate? Why is he afraid to debate?
He says the Discovery Institute is biased with a political agenda, yet he himself cites the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), as if they have no bias. The NCSE website proclaims their purpose: "Defending the Teaching of Evolution in the Public Schools." Let's be fair about this. If the viewpoints of the Discovery Institute should be set aside because they have a political agenda to promote the teaching of Intelligent Design alongside Evolutionary theory, then likewise the viewpoint of the NCSE should be set aside because they have a political agenda to keep Intelligent Design teaching out of the public schools.
Personally, I don't see what the problem is with the agenda of the Discovery Institute. They have never asked that the teaching of Evolution be set aside. They have only encouraged the teaching of all the scientific facts, including those that do not support Darwinism, especially since a growing number of scientists are questioning many of the components of Darwinian theory.
Basically, Mr. Wood is saying that Evolution is true because he and those in control of science education SAY it's true, so any dissenters should shut up.
Can't we move beyond all of this name-calling and simply let students study the scientific evidence, following it wherever it leads? Isn't that the great heritage of freedom of thought and scientific inquiry? What benefit is there to science to block out any scientific theory or evidence simply because it does not seem to support the Established Religion of Darwinism?
Mr. Wood closes his letter by saying we must respect scientific freedom. In that case, he should not be opposed to a high school student reading works like Michael Behe's book, Darwin's Black Box. Behe is a biochemist at Lehigh University, who says that Charles Darwin's theory of life's evolution through natural selection and random mutation fails to account for the origin of astonishingly complex biomolecular systems. The only problem for Mr. Wood is that Darwin's Black Box would be on the NCSE's black list. (Pardon the pun!) So who will he listen to? The scientist Michael Behe or the "political agenda" of the NCSE?